Tag Archives: bridal shower

As I promised a few weeks back, I wanted to dedicate a post to the Panty Poem activity we did during Michelle’s bachelorette in New Orleans.

I originally got the idea from my friend Demi when she was planning Vanessa’s Bachelorette last year, and I knew it would be a hit with Michelle as well! The way it works is, every girl attending the shower or bachelorette is assigned to bring a pair of underwear that is related to a milestone in a marriage (wedding night, pregnancy, 25th anniversary, etc.) and each pair has a poem verse that goes with.

I found a few poem options, including this one from The Knot but I kept running into the issue that no version had more than nine verses. So I looked online until I found enough options to inspire me to crank out the extra verses and edited the poem to fit Michelle’s life. Then, it was time to design the tags, which I included in each of the girls’ welcome kits so that they could tie them to the underwear before we did the activity with Michelle. Without further ado, here’s the full panty poem version, and some really funny reactions to a few spicy pairs of underwear…

This was Michelle before she knew what was going on, and the clothesline ready to be filled!

The Panty Poem

This bride tribe has a gift
All for our cheeky bride
Married life requires some underwear
We got you girl, it’s time!

Michelle, these undies are to last you
All throughout your life
And Brian will be pleased to say
He has a sexy wife!

So listen up to hear about
Your lifelong panty plan
And though this is for the bride

The groom for sure will say OH MAN!

1st Pair: Wedding Night White

The first are for your wedding day Of course they are pure white We know Brian will shout, “Hooray!” When he sees you on that night

2nd Pair: “Love At First Bite” Pizza Undies for Rome

The next are for your honeymoon Your first stop will be RomeSo we got you this festive pairTo kickstart all the nom nom nom

3rd Pair: Honeymoon Lace

For your next stop, we got you theseThey’re sexy and all lace We hope you’ll leave your hotel room ‘Cause Spain’s a gorgeous place!

4th Pair: Valentine’s Day Red

On Valentine’s you’ll wear this pair Before you hit the bed Cuz Cupid’s arrow in the air Shoots tushies that are red

5th Pair: 1st Anniversary Leopard Print

After a year has passed, you’ll face Anniversary number one With these you’ll surely have a blast ‘Cuz leopard’s so much fun!

6th Pair: Leather Set

And when you’re feeling readyFor your own kind of 50 shades We know this pair will have BrianFeeling like your personal Mr. Grey

7th & 8th Pair: Pink & Blue Pregnancy Undies

Then when the time is right for you And don’t be saying, “Maybe” You’ll wear your little pink or blue In honor of your baby

9th Pair: Edible Underwear

For random days where there you areWanting to spice things up Brian can enjoy a trip down south And take these off in one gulp

10th Pair: 25th Anniversary Silver

And when your years of wedded bliss Become the big 2-5 Don’t worry – you’ll just slip this on To keep the sparks alive

11th Pair: 50th Anniversary Gold

On your 50th anniversaryYou’ll be total couple goalsSo this pair will be your versionOf winning Olympic gold

12th Pair: Granny Panties!

When finally you’re old and gray With these you can’t go wrong ‘Cuz sorry Meech but at that age You just can’t wear a thong

And that’s the Panty Poem! She totally didn’t see it coming and had so much fun and laughed her butt off with all the crazy underwear she got! And the clothesline looked pretty cool at the end 😉

Ok guys, so by this point I’ve shown you the invitations and the place tiles, and I’m going to try to make this as short as possible so – welcome to my best friend’s Moroccan Bridal Shower!

AH! The first big event I’ve been preparing for for MONTHS as Maid of Honor finally came and went and I have to say, mishaps and all, it went so well and the most important part is that Michelle loved it and had an awesome time! Michelle’s mom and I planned it together and she was a crucial part in all of it turning out as nice and great as it did, so thank you Marta for all of your help and support with it! Some behind the scenes info:

Michelle had mentioned she wanted a Moroccan themed bridal shower before she was even engaged, so I knew that would be the theme, BUT it usually comes with an extremely colorful scheme. When I started my Pinterest board, I tried to focus on the ideas that had the most white, orange and pink to make it more bridal. And then, Michelle fell in love with rose gold, so that became the main accent color next to the white.

A few months into the planning, Michelle said to me: “you know I want people to actually come dressed in Moroccan attire, right?” and I was like no, I did not know that, but we can absolutely make it happen! And so we did, as almost everyone came donning their best kaftans and headpieces ❤

With this all said, let’s split the party in sections so that I don’t keep you reading for three hours:

Custom Glasses: when Marta and I were looking into tableware, I didn’t want to have plastic cups because they would cheapen the look, and then I remembered the acrylic stackables I used for my Friendsmas party a couple of years back. The problem was, people don’t usually keep track of their cups at parties, so I decided to use vinyl to put their names on it, solving the missing cup issue and also adding a favor they could take home! Win, win!

Décor: all I will say here is that I depleted Home Depot of their rose gold spray paint (but good thing rose gold/copper is in because I was definitely able to find TONS of things that were already rose gold, and in some cases, Moroccan too!)

Favors: I found these jumbo tea lights from IqraMehndiDesigns on Etsy. She was so great to work with and made the order to fit our color scheme beautifully. Did I mention she’s all the way in Bulgaria and thank God for planning with due time, because it takes two months between making and shipping these to arrive?!?! After the timely arrival, all we did was put them in boxes with filler, a ribbon and a tag 🙂

The inspiration image

Our favors wrapped and ready

The favors table

Food & Desserts: Marta took care of ordering the food from a Mediterranean restaurant and it was very yummy! I also asked the groom’s mom, Mayda, to make her infamous Greek salad which is always a hit at parties, and it absolutely was! For dessert, we ordered baklava, and also had some delicious “bundtinis” from Nothing Bundt Cakes, as well as some Ferrero Rocher chocolates, which you guessed it, we sprayed them rose gold too 🙂

Games: I asked the rest of the bridesmaids to help me figure out games that were fun, and we came up with: wear the ring and don’t say bride/Michelle, how many kisses in the jar, Michelle trivia, and find the groom (a picture of Brian hidden somewhere in the party, which he hid himself and it was hilarious!) The prizes were baskets filled with a small bottle of Rosé, a picture frame, a notepad, and a pen – all rose gold of course.

Guestbook: since Michelle didn’t want to have a traditional guestbook at the wedding, I thought it would be cute to get her a photo book with pictures of her whole relationship with Brian, and ask guests to fill it with advice for her. She absolutely loved it and it wasn’t a big expense since Shutterfly constantly runs free album offers, so all I had to cover was shipping (plus a few extra bucks for a specific theme that had rose gold, of course).

The digital proof of the guestbook cover ❤

Setup: from the moment I started thinking of the party, I knew that I wanted it to be in my backyard because I had a very specific vision of the table setting around the pool, with a tent for the weather + vibe. It all came together so nicely and Michelle kept telling me she thought the layout was genius, and she loved it all! With a little math figuring out table sizes and organization, it all worked out great!

Snapchat Geo-filter: after Michelle’s engagement party, her sister Andrea was like “we forgot the filter!” and ever since then, I had a mental note to do it for the bridal shower. I worked with DesiPaperThings on Etsy to bring it to life, of course, in white and rose gold.

Welcome Sign: I had spray painted my silver easel to make it rose gold for Michelle’s wedding, so I figured we could use it for the shower as well. And because repurposing is queen, I recycled a canvas from a “Paint With a Twist” party that I didn’t like by using gesso to flatten the surface, and with the stencil I created for the failed backdrop I turned the whole thing into a welcome sign 🙂

Of course, I also made props, including a big frame. Marta brought over a portable speaker for the music (we used a Latin music Spotify playlist). We made frosé as the signature drink of the event, and everyone genuinely seemed to have a great time ❤

Because I really try not to make everything seem perfect as we tend to do in social media, here are some of the things that didn’t go as planned (but of course we didn’t let it tamper with the day):

Restaurant forgot falafels, which Michelle was looking forward to the most

The weather: the amount of wind we got that weekend, we’ve seen only for tropical storms. It was INSANE. The setup was a mission, the tent people got there late because they had to buy sandbags for everyone they set up that day, and it was madness. We also got some rain the morning of while we were setting up the linens, but thanks to the unruly wind and the sun that came out later, everything dried off in time for the guests’ arrival.

A table flipped: the wind was so crazy that one of the tables flipped AFTER we had set it up with plates/place tiles/cups (and we used bottles of water and the tiles as weights to prevent things from flying off, but this entire table fell into the pool). Michelle’s dad helped us fish everything out of the pool, but a couple of the place tiles remained under water until the next cleaning… Action shot of the fishing out!

ALL IN ALL – amazing time, so happy with how it all turned out, and I know Michelle enjoyed it so: Mission – ACCOMPLISHED!

Check out this 1-minute video slideshow that showcases the whole event in just 60 seconds 🙂

I’m usually worse than a safe box when it comes to keeping things a surprise for events, but this time it’s been harder than ever because for the most part, the things I make are for random people so I can do #CraftingWithKathy episodes on Snapchat/Instastories or ask my friends for opinions, but since it’s all for Michelle’s shower, I can’t show anything to anyone because they’ll be there too. Since I’m kind of dying inside not being able to share what I’ve been working on for months now, and the shower is already this week, I wanted to show you just one little detail of what you’re going to see for my best friend’s Moroccan Bridal Shower, so make sure to look out for the recap post next week!

Trying to keep in line with the theme in all areas of the party, one of my favorite details is the place cards, or rather, place tiles that we’ll be using. Michelle’s mom Marta is taking care of putting together the seating chart, and since we’ll be putting the plates/napkins/cups already on the table, the place tiles will serve as 1. seat assignment, 2. weight to keep down the plate and napkin, and 3. a favor for attendees to take home.

I found an idea for the Moroccan place tiles on Etsy, but theirs showed the names in writing, and when I attempted it I didn’t love my penmanship for this, as you can see in the pictures below. I tried a few different markers and color swaps, none that I liked.

Because of this, I decided to stick to my tried and true: my Cricut. Cricut and vinyl never ever fail me, and the best part is I made a video (I’m getting better at documenting!) to showcase the process for anyone who may be intrigued as to how to put this together:

Hello friends! Now that the year has begun and we got our goal-setting in order, let’s start strong by tackling two head on: make things I haven’t made and make more videos!

With my best friend’s wedding fast-approaching on March 24th, the first big event leading to it is her bridal shower, which I’m planning together with her mom, Marta, and hosting at my house. The first step to get the event going: Invitations.

I wanted something that went with the theme and that was truly personalized, and after my search, I found this invitation image on Pinterest, which was a total “YES YES YES this is it!” moment. I couldn’t find the original maker, but it seemed they were in the UK and so it wasn’t really plausible to get it from them. Hence, the decision to DIY. Now, how?

My friend Sandy mentioned that heat-reactive foil worked on ink that was laser-printed when ran through a laminator. Unfortunately (and I’m still not sure why) when I attempted it, it didn’t work 😦

Then my friend Dorcas recommended I try heat embossing (and Sandy had actually gifted me the embossing tool about a year before) so when that attempt worked out, I knew this was the way to go. I bought the card stock and printed the invitation, and now, onto the fun of embossing. Embossing is a technique where you use an adhesive fluid, heat-reactive powder, and a heating tool that melts the powder to create a metallic effect. I made a video of the process for you all to enjoy, so here it is:

Wasn’t that cool? I swear after 40+ invitations, I was still mesmerized by the effect every single time! The list of materials I used can be found at the end of the blog 🙂

Now, onto envelopes –

I follow a few calligraphers on Instagram, but I think one of the best ones is @calligkatrina, who works on all surfaces and has some stunning fonts as part of her portfolio. When I saw this envelope layout she did, I immediately knew that I was going to use that as inspiration. Because my calligraphy skills are limited, I created a template to keep my lines straight, and I’m actually extremely happy with how it all turned out!

Now off to the post office, lets get some ladies to join us for the bridal shower, shall we?

Have you tried heat embossing before? Here’s a list of the materials I used and where I got them: